Monday, May 14, 2018

doubles near bear toes

Last night I opened up the shed to let Big Blue cool off, wondering if it would be possible to observe.  Chunks of marine layer fog were drifting to the north, occasionally straying overhead.  It turned out there was enough sky to observe, with occasional fog drifting through, threatening to shut me down any moment.  While transparency was poor such that I missed seeing some fainter stars, seeing got better over the time I observed, which was exactly one arc of my equatorial platform.  I thought conditions tonight would be the same, but no such luck, so I get to write last night's observations down.

STF 1427: 277x.  8th magnitude orange star and a very wide 1 delta mag B.  Suspect a faint star ~2-3" from A; using 553x does not show it, but I really suspect it.
10H 22M 00.53S +43° 54' 19.3" P.A. 214 SEP 9 MAG 8.18,8.54 SP F5V DIST. 105.04 PC (342.64 L.Y.)

Shy 552: Perfect triangle of widely separated stars looking like Leo's rump.  8th, 8.5, and 9th mag. [Not all three stars in the system, is a binary pair.]
10H 16M 38.13S +41° 16' 33.0" P.A. 6 SEP 107.1 MAG 7.40,8.78 SP F5+F8 DIST. 55.8 PC (182.02 L.Y.)

A2142: !! Very fine, split, ~1-1.5".  8th magnitude and 1.5 delta mag B, close split, very nice pair.  Seeing is getting better  In the finder this is one of a triangle of equal magnitude stars.
10H 05M 43.55S +41° 02' 42.7" P.A. 296 SEP 1 MAG 7.97,8.83 SP F0 DIST. 137.55 PC (448.69 L.Y.)

STF 1405: 8th and 10th magnitudes.  B is blurry with direct vision and flashes with averted.  Wide split; A is white with a little yellow.
10H 05M 55.92S +39° 34' 55.7" P.A. 252 SEP 22 MAG 7.30,11.76 SP A9V DIST. 105.82 PC (345.18 L.Y.)

Sma 75: Wide finder pair, white and slight yellow.  In the scope there are some more faint stars about, so it is likely a small cluster. [7 stars in the system.]
10H 43M 32.89S +46° 12' 13.9" P.A. 88 SEP 288.4 MAG 5.21,7.35 SP F5III DIST. 37.09 PC (120.99 L.Y.)

Jupiter: Really the first time I tried to look.  I swung over before it went behind the meridian tree, though it was so low it was being apodized by the lattice running along the top of my fence.  Weird moon configuration; all on one side but two were offset from the center and stacked on top of each other. 

STF 1425: ! Very faint pair, ~4-5" orange and blue, 0.5 delta mag.
10H 21M 34.14S +46° 09' 07.6" P.A. 358 SEP 4.8 MAG 9.89,10.74 SP F5 DIST. 144.51 PC (471.39 L.Y.)

While looking in the finder, two satellites went zooming across the view, close together and next to each other...

Kui 50: I see one star but cannot find the pair, which is supposed to be 4" separation... [B is 12.6 mag, out of reach of Big Blue especially in poor transparency.]
10H 28M 03.88S +48° 47' 05.6" P.A. 22.6 SEP 3.82 MAG 6.40,12.60 SP F9V DIST. 22.91 PC (74.73 L.Y.)

STT 229: !! Just wider than a thin hair split of equal white stars, ~8th mag.  0.63"!  [in 40 years it will be 0.2"...]
10H 48M 02.55S +41° 06' 35.8" P.A. 255.4 SEP 0.63 MAG 7.62,7.92 SP A5IV DIST. 165.56 PC (540.06 L.Y.)

Eng 45: Finder split, white, 0.5 delta mag.  [AB seen; BC 14th mag]
11H 11M 48.95S +42° 49' 55.6" P.A. 247 SEP 135 MAG 7.24,8.30 SP F8+G5 DIST. 46.77 PC (152.56 L.Y.)

Ho 50: Pretty light orange star but can not find the 3" separated pair even with apodizing mask showing a perfect star image...  [This one should have been doable...]
11H 13M 40.09S +41° 05' 19.8" P.A. 35 SEP 3 MAG 6.47,8.36 SP K2III DIST. 114.03 PC (371.97 L.Y.)

No comments:

Post a Comment